Matthew - saz
Maggie - acoustic guitar, flute, bells, percussion, kazoo, voice
Pete - acoustic guitar, electric guitar (and slide)
Ken - electric bass guitar
Dave - manualism
Pete, Maggie, Ken
1-4 are taken from a thoroughly enjoyable almost-acoustic psychedelic jam which happened at Ken and Maggie's house on 13/12/05, the day after I arrived in Wisconsin.
Dave was urged to join in on the last piece, having been described by Pete as a "handfartiste". I've since discovered that what he was doing is called "manualism", and there appears to be a small worldwide scene devoted to this artform! Track 2 is based on a riff from a song by Pete called "Nothing Held Weight".
5-8 were recorded the night before I left to return to Exeter, at Pete's apartment. These were just me, Pete and Maggie. We'd just eaten, and it was a fairly spaced-out, low-energy occasion. The music felt rather insubstantial...but listening back, it's better than I remembered. The news of Ariel Sharon's major stroke had just come through, so the whole Middle East situation looked even more uncertain. I asked Maggie to sing a beatiful Hebrew prayer I'd heard her sing once before - that's the basis of track 7.
Pete recently released a well-received EP as Traveler's Requiem. Ken used to play bass in central Wisconsin's finest psychedelic danceband The Stellectrics, who eventually morphed into Irene's Garden. At this time he was playing with "dark pop" band Sunshine for the Blind in Madison. Maggie's Stevens Point-based band Maggie and the Molecules hadn't been very active since she'd moved south to Madison. But in the time between these two sessions she got a job at the wonderful community radio station WORT .
A Tiny Window
The Spring - Matthew's 'audio-blog' contact: mwatkins@maths.ex.ac.uk
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